Location

Balada is a small hamlet in the Ebro Delta, located between the towns of Amposta and Sant Jaume d'Enveja. It is near the river Ebro, facing the small isle of Gràcia. It consists of a handful of houses on each side of its only street, Sant Cristófol Street, which serves as a boundary between the municipal area of these two towns.

Its permanent population is only about 10 inhabitants (2004 census), though more people live there in the summer months.

There is a huge and officially-protected oleander tree in the centre of the settlement. This could be the origin of the hamlet’s name as an oleander is known as a “baladre” in Catalan. Another explanation could be the surname of one of the first settlers to come and live here. In the past Balada was a small village with up to 30 inhabitants and its own primary school.

The reason for the municipal boundary splitting the hamlet dates back to 1912, when the towns of Tortosa and Amposta divided the land in the Delta between themselves, and chose to draw the boundary here, with each town keeping one half of Balada. Subsequently, the Tortosa half became dependent politically on the town of Sant Jaume d'Enveja when it segregated from Tortosa in 1978.